It's okay not to be okay
Every year thousands of men take their own lives. Despite growing awareness around men's mental health, suicide rates among men continue to rise. Currently in the UK the leading cause of death for men under 50 is suicide. Since the 1980s women's suicide rate has fallen nearly 50% whilst mens just under 10%. All humans at times suffer from mental health issues; in a similar vein to how we all will suffer from physical health issues. However there is a vast disparity in how we react to these pains; when we feel physical suffering we will seek professional help and let our friends and family know, yet when we are suffering mentally we do the opposite. We internalise our mental health and externalise our physical health.
We live in an individualist society where we are told if we haven't succeeded in a certain manner we only have ourselves to blame, so often when one doesn't 'succeed' in that manner a great wave of shame, anxiety and self-hatred looms over. It is an incredibly simplistic view to suggest the only causes of depression are ones individual brain chemistry or early childhood experiences. Mental health is a political issue. Our lives are affected by all manner of political, economical, social, cultural causes; to isolate the brain and act like it's not too is incredibly foolish. We are statistically as a society more economically insecure, socially isolated, hyper fixated with productivity and exposed to a recently unimaginable flux of information; causing widespread anxiety and feelings of inadequacy. We need to de-internalise mental health, collectively as a society, continuing to make it a topic of conversation and checking in with people around us. Understanding it is it completely okay to not feel okay. Telling others we are not okay is often the first step on a path to feeling okay.
Screenprint
21 x 29.7cm
